| rebecca l. eisenberg on Sun, 11 May 1997 23:23:50 +0200 (MET DST) |
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| <nettime> Tune In, Drop Out: the "hippie=raver?" equation at theJanuary, 1997 Digital Be-In. |
[This piece originally written for David Hudson's REWIRED: Journal of a
Strained Net, http://www.rewired.com]
"tune in, turn on, drop out"
January 20th, 1997
by Rebecca L. Eisenberg
As much as we new media types try to
deny it, history will find a way to
repeat itself. And like most bad
movies, it is never as good the
second time around.
Nothing could provide better evidence
of this inevitability than the recent
celebration in San Francisco of the
30th anniversary of the Human Be-In.
The original and Human Be-In,
according to its organizers, Allen
Cohen and Michael Bowen, was a
"gathering of the tribes" in order to
unite the philosophically opposed
factions of the San Francisco
hedonistic hippies and the violently
confrontational Berkeley activists
and join them together to create a
new kind of political activism. On
January 14, 1967, 30,000
counter-culturalists and radicals
converged in Golden Gate Park in
order to "meet minds" and "question
authority." With Timothy Leary at the
helm, they "turned on, tuned in, and
dropped out," and a revolution - (of
sorts) - was in motion.
But thirty years later, in the
gentrified South of Market San
Francisco district, free love is
tired, and folk music, passe. In the
all-out-for-ourselves internet
universe, there are no feuding
factions to unite, no Victorian
social enforcers to rebel against,
and, as to the censorship-happy
federal government to oppose - well,
we did that last year.
Fortunately, memes can be bent, and,
in the eyes of the
neuvo-Leary-cum-cybernauts, personal
computers replace water pipes,
bandwidth replaces parkgrounds, and
ascii and html serve as fine pixels
of Electronic LSD. And thus the idea
of the 9th Annual Digital Be-In was
born.
A Digital Be-In, they discovered,
could be more than a corporate-backed
showcase of electronic art, providing
little service beyond an opportunity
for high-tech corporations from Silly
Valley a chance to drive north to
market their wares.
This year's more mature Digital Be-In
remembered its roots: it selected a
political theme, and invited the
world by means of a netcast. It
promised to celebrate "Cultural
Diversity in Cyberspace." In an
industry notorious for its domination
by white males, Be-In '97 had the
right idea.
But it had the wrong audience.
Although Jerry Brown was passionate
when describing his new grass roots
digital effort, and Delores Huerta
pointed all to the internet-based
Strawberry workers campaign, the
congregation consisted primarily of
the choir. Had there only been some
20-somethings in the crowd before
midnight, the event might actually
have produced the impression that the
high tech slackerati do care about
their fellow humans, and not just
about controlling their joystick and
their next bag of shrimp chips.
So where were those Gen-Xers, the
voice of tomorrow?
Perhaps following too closely the
words of deceased utopian Leary to
"think for themselves," most of the
20-somethings stayed home for the
speeches and saved their arrival for
the beginning of "seminars" - the
Be-In buzzwords for "musical
celebration."
The only thing that should be
surprising is that anyone would be
surprised.
We live in an age where
new-media-philes and
digital-proto-pundits declare ad
nauseam the arrival of an Internet
"Revolution" - where freedom reigns
supreme in the universal aether
playground and memes flow and mutute
freely from hub to shining hub. But
"revolution" necessarily implies
change, and change requires action -
hardly the first priority on the
to-do list of the post-political
dissatisfied slackerati.
The true digividual thinks for
herself - and stands up to
authorities like the "PC Police" -
who order them to integrate their
start-ups. In right-leaning
anarchism, diversity flows from each
person stepping up to bat; nevermind
those farm workers, nevermind the
technologically lacking.
"But we are rebelling against the
Man!" type the web slingers into
their java-based chat forums, surfing
the weather pages and selecting their
rave gear. Why take part in politics?
Taking a stand is so "PC." And
organizing a movement is so
anti-individualistic.
Instead, water bottles in hand,
backpacks in tow, they toss on their
mini-shirts and baggie slacks, and
celebrate themselves to the tune of
repetitive drumbeat techno while neon
and digital vrml-like patterns splash
and spin on screens and walls:
"self... selfless... self...
selfless...".
They form a community alright, but do
not take it to arms. Where "selfless"
meant "for the good of us all," it
now means "unattached to ourselves."
To hell with the fact that nothing
would better satisfy the "authority"
they bemoan than their community of
dopey-eyed teenytshirt-wearing
blowpop-sucking pixel pushers,
"dropping out" before "tuning in."
Do not get me wrong. I like a good
party as much as the next
20-something. And I too enjoy the
thrill of events where if the "Man"
and his corporate subsidiaries bring
the lasers flashing leftist
propaganda while new agers and other
addicts smoke norcal outdoor greenbud
out of glass pipes.
As Emma Goldman put it, "If I can't
dance, I don't want your revolution."
But make no mistake: this is not a
revolution. This is nothing more than
a party.
We have the free speech. Now somebody
... please talk.
© Rebecca L. Eisenberg 1997 All Rights Reserved
mars@well.com http://www.bossanova.com/rebeca
rebecca.lynn.eisenberg
mars@bossanova.com, mars@well.com
http://www.bossanova.com/rebeca/
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